Introducing a New Way to Measure Health Care Quality

In this video, Helen Darling of The National Business Group on Health explains how employers will benefit from the Global Cardiovascular Risk (GCVR) score, a new quality improvement tool aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Measures of quality typically focus on the care patients receive and provide little information about whether the patient’s health has improved as a result of that care. In contrast, the GCVR will assess the impact of health care decisions on patient outcomes.

Because this new approach focuses on preventing bad outcomes—which cause expensive admissions, tests, and procedures—it has the potential to both improve patient care and lower costs.

With support from Pioneer, the National Committee for Quality Assurance and Archimedes, Inc., will develop and test the GCVR over the coming months. Learn more about this new grant.

This commentary originally appeared on the RWJF Pioneering Ideas blog.